Picking Out a PDA
Cost, size, versatility and other factors contribute to decision
[Henry Norr, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, December 7, 2000]
From corporate boardrooms to high school hangouts, pocket electronic organizers and communicators are showing up in the pockets, purses and palms of people in every walk of life.
These handy little contraptions, known as personal digital assistants, or PDAs, make great gifts, with two qualifications: First, they're not exactly cheap -- the most-popular models are priced between $150 and $600. Second, they're probably not a good choice for folks who have no experience at all with computers -- though the devices themselves are not hard to master, and they can be used without a computer, they work best in conjunction with a PC or a Mac.
But suppose you can afford the fare and the potential recipient meets the minimal technology requirements. The next challenge is to choose a suitable device, and that can be tough. The number of competing vendors and models is increasing, and even if money is no object, there's no single good-better-best hierarchy among PDAs -- it all depends on the future user's tastes and priorities.
Under the circumstances, it might make sense to forget surprise and consult with the recipient before you make the purchase. If you don't want to do that - - or even if you do -- make sure to buy from a dealer who will accept post- holiday returns without hassle.
To help you navigate among the options, we've grouped our suggestions into six categories.
CHEAPEST
If all you want is a simple electronic version of a traditional address book and calendar, you don't have to spend a lot of money -- on the Web or at office-supply stores, you can find a wide selection of economical organizers. Franklin Electronic Publishers, for example, offers 10 models in its Rolodex Electronics line with prices under $55, including one organizer that sells for just $9.95. Casio, Oregon Scientific, Sharp, Vtech and other manufacturers also make sub-$100 organizers.
Generally speaking, such devices have limited memory and small, dim screens,
but in addition to low prices they offer months of battery life and small but easy-to-use keyboards. Some low-cost models, such as the venerable Sharp Wizard and Casio's Pocket Viewer, even come with cables or cradles and software for synchronizing data with a PC.
Most of the excitement about PDAs, however, is focused on products that use either the Palm operating system or Microsoft's competing Pocket PC software platform. If price is a priority, you can forget the latter -- the least- expensive Pocket PC model on the market, Compaq's monochrome Aero 1550, goes for $299, and the better-known color-screen Pocket PCs range in price from $440 to $600.
That leaves the Palm OS. Here the entry price (leaving aside discontinued models) is $149, for which you can choose between two closely matched alternatives: Palm's own m100 and Handspring's Visor. (The latter used to go for $179, but Handspring recently cut the price "for a limited time only." Both products have 2MB of built-in memory.
The Visor, which runs the same software as the Palm products, has a couple of advantages: Its screen is slightly bigger than the m100's, and it includes a Springboard slot, where you can add any of a small but growing list of expansion modules, such as a tiny digital camera, an MP3 player or, soon, a mobile telephone.
The m100, on the other hand, has a few unique features of its own: a digital clock you can see even when the lid is closed, for example, and a new application for scribbling quick notes.
Handspring's standard cradle for exchanging data with a computer plugs into the Universal Serial Bus, which makes it a better choice for users of recent Apple Macs and most PCs running Windows 98 Second Edition or later. The connecting cable that comes with Palm's m100 goes into a conventional serial port, so it's the simplest solution if the prospective recipient has an older PC. (Users of pre-USB Macs need an extra-cost adapter for either PDA.)
SMALLEST
All of the current Palm and Pocket PC products will fit in a shirt pocket. The slimmest and lightest Palm OS models are the Palm V and Vx ($329 and $399, respectively, with 2MB and 8MB of memory); on the Pocket PC side, this prize goes to the Aero 1550 ($299), followed closely by the same company's hot- selling but hard-to-find iPAQ handheld ($499).
If even those models are too bulky for your giftee, and he or she is willing to live without either Palm or Pocket PC software, you can find even smaller PDAs. Oregon Scientific's Echo, which lists for just $80 including PC synchronization cradle, is the length and width of a credit card and just a quarter of an inch thick. Xircom's Rex "MicroPDA" has similar dimensions, and it's an actual PC Card -- it can plug directly into a notebook PC as well as into a cradle attached to a desktop PC. The older Rex 5000 series starts at $70, and the new Rex 6000, with a touch screen for text input, is scheduled to go on sale Dec. 15 with prices starting at $149.
BRIGHTEST
Most Palm and Handspring models have dull gray-green or gray-gold screens. They are easy enough to read in offices with bright overhead lighting, but can be problematic, even with backlighting on, in other circumstances.
Color displays are obviously better for graphics, but they also improve text legibility dramatically, mainly because they have higher contrast ratios. The two color options for the Palm OS are the Palm IIIc, now priced at $329, and Handspring's $449 Visor Prism. Between the two, the latter is much better for graphics because it draws from a palette of 65,536 colors, versus only 256 colors for the IIIc.
Pocket PC PDAs have better screens, not only because most of them use color,
but also they're larger. While the Palm OS still limits screen resolution to 160 by 160 pixels, the standard on Pocket PCs is 240 by 320 pixels -- more than three times as much screen real estate in all. While HP's Jornada 540 series has a mid-range palette of 4,096 colors, Casio's Cassiopeia line and Compaq's iPAQ both display 65,536 colors, which makes them the best available for graphics and video. While both are a pleasure to look at, Compaq uses an innovative front-lighting technology that gives the iPAQ the edge, especially if the device is to be used outdoors.
The downside to the Pocket PC machines' bigger, brighter screens: expense. List prices for color Pocket PCs range between $500 and $600, and the least expensive street price we found is $441 for Casio Cassiopeia EM500 at Amazon. com.
All color screens also consume more power than monochrome displays. Vendors in both Palm and Pocket PC camps have dealt with this problem by building rechargeable lithium ion battery packs into their color models and adding charging capabilities to their cradles. The net effect is that battery life isn't a problem if you plug the PDA into its cradle on a daily basis. Unlike most monochrome models, however, the color PDAs don't give users the option of simply popping in a new set of disposable batteries, so if you expect to use the device on a trip of more than a few days, you need to haul an AC adapter along.
MOST COMMUNICATIVE
It's possible to add a dial-up modem to most PDAs, but this year the buzz is about wireless access. The easiest way to achieve that is to pick a PDA with a wireless radio built in. The best known such products are the Palm VII ($399) and its new sibling with expanded memory, the VIIx ($449). To use their communications capabilities, you'll also have to subscribe to the Palm.net service, which costs between $10 and $45 per month, depending on usage.
While the Palm VII originally worked only with special Palm.net e-mail accounts, it's now possible, with help from third-party applications, to get messages from most Internet mail systems, including America Online and Web- based services like Hotmail and Yahoo. You can't surf the Web in the same free- form style you can from a desktop computer (or a Pocket PC), but Palm's "Web Clipping" scheme lets you retrieve key information and transact business with more than 400 of the most popular Web sites.
The other popular PDA line with wireless capabilities built in is the BlackBerry series from Research in Motion of Waterloo, Canada. The line includes several versions, but just two basic shapes: most models resemble text pagers, while the new BlackBerry 957 looks more like a Palm product. Instead of handwriting recognition or on-screen "soft" keyboards, both BlackBerry models rely on tiny thumb-driven keyboards for input.
The smaller BlackBerry devices typically sell for $399; the new 957 is $499.
The devices are not available at most computer or electronics retailers, but the Staples office-supply chain sells them, or you can order them from the RIM Web site, through Amazon.com, from Compaq, from many paging companies or from some Internet service providers, including EarthLink.
In addition, Yahoo in partnership with wireless provider Motient offers RIM hardware with special software for accessing Yahoo services, and AOL is expected to follow suit this month. Service fees depend on the provider and the amount of data permitted, but generally run between $40 and $80 per month.
The RIM devices rely on the paging network, which is more pervasive and more reliable than other U.S. wireless data networks. As with a pager, your messages show up automatically -- you don't have to log on specially to get your mail, as you do with the Palm VII and VIIx. On the other hand, the standard RIM software offers no access to the Web, though at least one wireless service provider, GoAmerica, adds a Web browser to its version of the BlackBerry.
While wireless e-mail is RIM's main claim to fame, the BlackBerry models also have the usual array of personal-information-management applications built in -- an address book, calendar, etc. RIM also provides good PC data- synchronization software.
Motorola offers competing two-way pagers, also e-mail capable, under the PageWriter, Timeport and Talkabout labels.
It's also possible to add a wireless modem to Palm organizers that don't have one built in, as well as to Handspring and some Pocket PC models. OmniSky,
for example, provides such add-ons for the Palm V and Vx, the new Visor Prism and Platinum and, soon, the HP Jornada 540 series. Novatel Wireless, the company that makes OmniSky's modems, also sells a Palm III version.
And Sierra Wireless offers two PC Cards that provide wireless capabilities for Compaq iPAQ Pocket PCs: the AirCard 300, available now in a $449 bundle that also includes the necessary "expansion jacket" for the iPAQ, uses the CDPD standard over cell phone networks, while the AirCard 400, due in the first quarter of next year, will work with Metricom's new high-speed Ricochet network.
There's a cheaper way to put a standard PDA online wirelessly, though: connect it to a data-capable cell phone. Socket Communications sells CompactFlash cards that connect many Pocket PC models to various brands of phones, and last month, Palm released a $40 software program that does the same, via infrared or a cable you have to buy separately from the manufacturer of your phone, for all recent Palm models.
MOST VERSATILE
If you're picking a PDA for a serious power user -- someone who will want to go beyond basic personal information management and messaging -- there's no question about which PDAs are the most powerful and flexible: the new generation of Pocket PCs, such as the Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC, the HP Jornada 540 series, and Casio's Cassiopeia E-115, E-125 and EM500.
In addition to bigger, better screens than any Palm OS product, they come with a variety of built-in hardware and software features that would require extra-cost hardware or software on the Palm platform
All of the leading Pocket PCs, for example, have built in voice recorders and audio speakers. They include a version of Microsoft's Windows Media Player,
which can play digital music in MP3 as well as Windows Media format. And they come with Pocket versions of many other popular Microsoft applications, including Word, Excel, Money, Outlook and Internet Explorer. (The last lets you view nearly all Web pages, online or off, not just limited Web Clippings.
All of this power comes at a price not only in dollars, but also in complexity: the Pocket PC user interface, though much improved over earlier Windows CE releases, is still more complicated than the Palm OS. In addition, the selection of freeware, shareware and commercial software available for the Pocket PC is also much more limited than the huge library of available Palm OS programs. But if you're buying for a user who's willing to trade some simplicity for extra power, and you can afford the price, the new Pocket PCs may be the season's hottest electronics gift.
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